but I will never use the shiney gold brass ones, because I believe they take away from the realistic look of the nymph. At least for wild browns, I have never had luck with the gold shiney ones.

I mostly use the copper ones, but the bright gold ones work very well at times for wild browns. Particularly on streams that aren't pounded hard and especially after a rain when the water is chalky colored.

But go with what you have confidence in. I think the copper ones are the best all around choice. I never use the silver ones. That's my predjudice. I tried them a few times and I don't think I ever caught a fish on one. So I just don't have confidence in them.

dude, bead heads are not a natural phenom. but for some reason trout lke em, even the wild ones. My best patern is a size 16 nymph copper john style using peacock herl and gold mylar as the wing case and cover. This fly has caught many many trout Kemoshabe, and thats why my theory about all trout being females holds water. Women love shiny things that dont make sense, bead heads dont exist as a natural food source any doubters now?? Hope this helps you out.

Posted on: 2007/8/1 8:26

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" I chose my cast a march brown, a dun..... and ran to the river chasing hope"....... Wilfrid S. Blunt

I was fishing valley creek today, I was out of scuds except for ones with bright gold beads. I tried one and caught two fish on it. The were both only about 6 inches though. I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

heres one to think about - bead heads work better for most people because of the weight of the fly offsets the anglers ability.in other words, a weighted fly gets into the strike zone easier, faster, and doesn't take as much technique and hydraulic knowledge. Hence the confidence bead heads get. I'm guilty.I fish bead heads on every outing. I go back and forth on weather its the attraction of the metal or the weight. Part of me leans more towards the weight.Think about the hydraulics - water moves slower at the bottom due to friction, so a weighted fly will actually move slower because it will cut through the water easier and be less suspectable to be influenced from the leader within the faster water to be pulled up or perpendicular to the flow. But then i have more confidence in silver and tungsten than gold which I'd say is a result of pressured fish seeing more gold, so that leads to attraction.So, basically what i finally figuring out is it just comes down to presentation and what you comfortable using. So, I think its easier to get a better presentation with a weighted fly. Whats everyone else's thoughts - weighted and unweighted?

I like a bead head zug bug or prince nymph in higher more stained water conditions though. Right now I am on this kick with tying glass krystal beads onto my midge patterns which have produced on wilds, however, they don't add weight. I also use zebra midges with a bead and I produce a lot of wilds with that. Like a couple of other guys have already said use what you have confidence in.

I was recently nymphing on a very small stream in Chester County using beadheads. I was having a miserable time. The fish seemed to have no interest in taking beadheads, reguardless of the color of the bead.

I did notice that the position of the fish (wild browns) in the water column was a little unusual. They were hovering dead-center in spite of the shallowness of the stream. I switched to a nymph identical to the one I had been using, without the bead.

I decided to skitter the nymph on the initial cast rather than dead-drifiting it. This did the trick. I caught over a dozen large wild brown trout that day.

It think the bead may have nothing to do with it whatsoever, it probably has more to do with the position of the fish and the weight of the fly itself.